Overview

eVisioner, a leader in team performance management systems, used components from the Altova® MissionKit® including: XMLSpy®, StyleVision®, UModel®, and DiffDog® to build a Web-based governance solution from the ground up. MetaTeam® is a unique XML-based collaboration environment that aims to raise project team performance and lower costs by empowering users with better organization and decision-making resources. MetaTeam lets organizations of all sizes provide work groups and virtual teams tools to structure projects, create living charters, optimize decision making, assign and align roles, manage relationships, track performance against goals, and more.

The Challenge

The vision for MetaTeam was a highly scalable application for the coordination and management of team goals, roles, and responsibilities. The solution needed to promote transparency and decision-making ability through effective organization and ultimately lead to better team performance.

After creating a prototype of the MetaTeam product, eVisioner realized that creating a consistent user interface for such a large program under active development would require either constant attention or an inflexible development process, and possibly both.  In addition, the developers needed a way to integrate documentation, import and export data, and allow customers to generate customized reports.  Together, all of these concerns suggested the implementation of an XML architecture.

The Solution

In keeping with the principles defined by the naked objects pattern, eVisioner planned to automatically generate the MetaTeam user interface from its domain model and an abstract application description in XML.

The eVisioner team found that the XML development tools and other components included in the Altova MissionKit were a perfect fit to model, build, and test the MetaTeam team governance application.

UML Model

Development of the MetaTeam application began with UML class and sequence diagrams created in Altova UModel. UModel provided a means to model the substantial changes that were required to move from the prototype to production-ready code. In addition, UModel's intuitive user interface made it easy to navigate, understand, and manipulate MetaTeam’s interface and the subclassing method that was used to approach a handful of complex central classes.

MetaTeam UML Class Diagram

XML Schema & Application Definition

eVisioner used the graphical XML Schema Editor in XMLSpy to create a wire frame model of the MetaTeam Web application, which it uses as the basis for generating functional J2EE code - in total over 3,000 Java and JSP files - for each iteration.  Using XMLSpy's XML Schema and Grid views made it simple to reconfigure the layout of the application, turn features on and off, and specify behaviors without any concern that the look and feel of the application would become inconsistent. 

 

A small section of the MetaTeam framework definition shown in XMLSpy's XML Schema view

The MetaTeam application definition is contained in an XML instance file that specifies the behavior of the application. Using XMLSpy's XPath Analyzer with intelligent XPath autocompletion, the developers were able to create a library of XPath 2.0 expressions to check for defects and validate that required fields were handled correctly.  For example, the simple XPath below finds all input elements that do not include a description attribute.

XPath Analyzer in XMLSpy

Report Templates

With the working application in hand, the developers then created an XML model of an example workgroup mapped to the domain model used in MetaTeam. Using the workgroup model they created report templates with Altova StyleVision, including a default team charter.  Not only does the stylesheet template provide multi-channel output to HTML, PDF, and Microsoft Word, but it also gives eVisioner employees an easy way to work with customers to create and upload customized versions of the reports.

Report design in StyleVision

PDF output generated by StyleVision

XML Differencing

Because of the considerable emphasis on XML development, DiffDog, Altova's XML-aware diff/merge tool, became an integral part of the application development and testing process. In particular, DiffDog provided critical XML differencing capabilities during testing of the code generation framework.  Since the framework let developers re-use common components such as tabs, forms, and other UI features in multiple parts of the application, it was necessary to prove that these replicated structures were identical to their source.  Serializing the in-memory model back to XML allowed DiffDog to visualize the differences so that the developers could catch slight variations before they caused problems.

Testing code using XML differencing in Altova DiffDog

The Results

eVisioner's choice to use XML as the basis for building its Web application has made MetaTeam a truly modular team governance solution that can be scaled up or down as needed.

Using its XML-based infrastructure alongside of the Altova MissionKit, eVisioner is able to generate a full working copy of MetaTeam in less than two minutes with 100% confidence that the application will perform as defined.  Moving tabs, adding forms, or changing a page layout requires just an incremental generation taking seconds.  This speed and reliability allows eVisioner to make minor updates to the application in less time, thereby being more reactive to customer feedback.  With the additional ability to offer customers a way to easily customize their reports using StyleVision, eVisioner gains a unique capability that increases the value of MetaTeam to its customers.

HL7 is an international standard for transmitting clinical and administrative information within healthcare domains such as hospitals, pharmaceutical, medical device, and insurance entities.

Altova has just released a new MapForce course as part of its line of free online training modules. This course focuses on HL7 integration using both the EDI (version 2.x) and XML (version 3.x) formats. Each of the three modules include step-by-step tutorials, evaluation exercises, and a chance to work with real HL7 files and functions.

Go on, join the EHR revolution! Download a free 30-day trial of MapForce, go to our training page, and check out powerful HL7 mapping from Altova!

Get the Most Advanced UML Features - And Save 50%, 70%, or Even 90% Over Competing Tools!

For a limited time we’re offering special savings on Altova UModel. Combining a rich visual interface with superior usability features, UModel also includes high-end code engineering functionality to empower you with the maximum benefits of UML software development.

Starting at just $149, Altova UModel delivers the most advanced UML modeling features in the industry - at a fraction of the cost of other UML tools.

The same powerful functionality and ease of use that you've experienced in other Altova tools is packed into an affordable, intuitive UML modeling tool. UModel supports:

* All 14 UML 2.3 diagrams

* SysML and BPMN

* Code gen and reverse engineering of Java, C#, and VB .NET

* Round-trip engineering

* XMI import / export

* Visual Studio and Eclipse integration

* 32- and 64-bit versions

* And much more

Cool off with an additional 20% discount Enter code JULY10 during checkout in the Altova Online Shop for 20% off UModel. Act fast - this sizzling offer expires July 31, 2010.

*Savings calculated by comparing published single-user prices of Sparx Enterprise Architect Engineering Edition, Magicdraw Professional Edition, and IBM Rational Software Architect Standard Edition including Rational Modeling Extension for Microsoft .NET, with equivalent UModel Enterprise Edition configured with comparable bundled software maintenance plans.

In an earlier post we discussed connecting to Microsoft SQL Azure databases with Altova DatabaseSpy and demonstrated database schema comparison and content comparison between a local database and the same database migrated to SQL Azure.

In this post we will use a different method to migrate an existing table to SQL Azure and show you some tricks you can do with XML in the cloud. We started by creating a new database schema in SQL Azure. Then we created a DatabaseSpy project with a connection to a local copy of SQL Server Express running the AdventureWorks sample database, and a second connection to our new SQL Azure schema.

The AdventureWorks database contains a table called JobCandidate with some XML data we will use for a model for our SQL Azure XML contents.

We can generate a CREATE statement for the existing table to use as a basis for the SQL Azure version.

We need to modify this statement to execute in our SQL Azure database. In addition to changing the database and schema names, we will remove the foreign key constraint to the Employee table, since our new database doesn’t contain a table with that name.

Also, SQL Azure does not support the CONTENT keyword, so we will remove that as well.

After making sure the Properties window for the revised CREATE statement points to the SQL Azure database, we can execute the statement. When we refresh the database and expand our view in the Online Browser helper window, we can see the new empty table.

A data comparison between the existing table and the new one will allow us to create a script to migrate data into our new table in the SQL Azure cloud. This is similar to the data comparison we wrote about in our previous post on SQL Azure, except instead of merging data directly, we will save the merge script.

Our first attempt to run the merger script failed, throwing an error message that SQL Azure cannot insert values into the new table when IDENTITY_INSERT is set to OFF. We can add a line to the merge script to SET INDENTITY_INSERT ON and re-execute:

Next, we can run a SELECT query to view the data that was successfully uploaded.

The DatabaseSpy Data Inspector window lets us more easily examine the contents of a wide column, and is ideal to use for XML documents stored in the Resume column of the new JobCandidate table.

Editing XML Data with XMLSpy

If you need to revise, edit, update, or validate XML data in a SQL Azure database, Altova XMLSpy provides more robust XML editing features than DatabaseSpy. We can connect to our SQL Azure database from XMLSpy and run a SELECT query from the XMLSpy Database Query window. XMLSpy lets us open any XML row for direct editing, with access to advanced XML editing functionality.

Of course all the familiar features of the XMLSpy text view and grid view are available.

After your edits are complete, the XMLSpy File / Save menu option saves the revised XML document to the same row of the JobCandidate table in the SQL Azure database in the cloud.

Parsing XML Data with XQuery

You can also apply the XMLSpy XQuery editor, with its built-in knowledge of XQuery syntax and context-sensitive entry helpers to build XQuery statements that parse the XML data in your SQL Azure database. The XQuery statement below extracts and returns the home addresses from the XML resumes where JobCandidateID is less than 7.

The XQuery statement can be executed in the Database Query window, with results immediately available to work with in XMLSpy.

Of course the XQuery result can also be edited in Text view or in Grid view.

And you can save the query result either from the Database Query window or from the XML Editor view.

Find out for yourself how productive you can be by using Altova tools to work with XML data in the SQL Azure cloud ̶ download a free 30-day trial of the Altova MissionKit for Software Architects, an integrated suite that includes XMLSpy, DatabaseSpy, and additional XML, database, and UML tools.

Tips and techniques to ease introduction of Microsoft’s cloud-based SQL Azure database into production environments led the topics in June at the Tech-Ed conference in New Orleans.

SQL Azure is built on Microsoft SQL Server technologies and is designed to provide a highly-available and scalable database service hosted by Microsoft in the cloud. Developers who deploy databases in SQL Azure do not have to install, setup, patch, or manage any relational database software, only their own database structure and content. Automatic redundancy and fault tolerance are built-in and no physical administration is required.

You can build a manual connection string and use SQL Server syntax and datatypes to connect DatabaseSpy and other Altova tools to SQL Azure databases to perform typical database development and maintenance tasks.

This blog post makes a connection to a SQL Azure database from DatabaseSpy and demonstrates several typical operations you might want to perform as you migrate an existing database to the cloud.

To retrace these steps on your own you will need a SQL Azure account, or a login and password created by a SQL Azure account holder. For more information on setting up a SQL Azure account, visit the Microsoft SQL Azure home page.

You will also need to install the SQL Server Native Client 10.0 (or later).

SQL Azure does not behave exactly like a local SQL Server database, so we can’t use the Altova SQL Server connection wizard. Instead we will use an ODBC connection.

We won’t illustrate all the details of the process of building a new connection string here. You can paste an existing connection string into the dialog shown above, or, if you need specific instructions for each step to manually create a new string, you can refer to the Tech Note titled Build an ODBC Connection String for SQL Azure on the Altova Web site.

After you connect to SQL Azure the first time, a DatabaseSpy project file lets you save all your connection settings along with frequently-used SQL scripts, database design files, and database comparisons in a convenient bundle to reload later.

The screenshot below shows a new DatabaseSpy project with two databases connected simultaneously, Sakila in MySQL and Sakila in the cloud in SQL Azure.

Microsoft provides a number of conversion tools to help users migrate existing databases to the SQL Azure platform. We used the Microsoft SQL Server Migration Assistant for MySQL to convert our local MySQL Sakila sample database to our SQL Azure account.

DatabasesSpy lets users open multiple connections simultaneously, even to databases of different types. The database comparison functionality of DatabaseSpy makes it an ideal tool to check the results of the Sakila conversion. First we will open a database schema comparison and select a few tables from the MySQL database for the left side of the comparison.

After we select the corresponding tables from SQL Azure version, the tables open in a database schema comparison window.

When we click the green compare button at the top left corner of the window, DatabaseSpy compares the database structures, highlights differences, and generates a summary in the message window.

Some differences represent datatype definitions that vary between databases. For instance, the MySQL type unsigned small int does not have an exact equivalent in SQL Server, so the conversion tool substituted the int type for the film_id column in the film table.

Also, the year datatype assigned to the release_year column in MySQL has been converted to a smallint in SQL Azure. I guess this will make the SQL Azure version of the database more forward-compatible, since it will be able to accommodate films released all the way through the year 32,767, as opposed to 2155, which is the maximum value of the year datatype in MySQL!

We can compare data contained in the two databases via a selection in the right-click context menu, opening the selected tables in a new data comparison window.

The data comparison shows us the contents of the tables are not identical.

When we open the results window, we see that the description column did not migrate successfully.

Looking back at the Database Schema Comparison window, we can see the length of the description column was set to zero. This explains the red arrows that point from the description column in MySQL to the description column in SQL Azure in the Results window. We cannot copy any string of text into a column with a defined length of zero.

Instead, let’s open the SQL Azure version of the film table in a new Design window.

We can increase the size of the description field in the Properties window, and run the resulting change script.

Next, when we re-run the data comparison, we find that the data was converted, but the previously defined field length of zero made the data invisible.

Latency Issues

You can use DatabaseSpy to explore latency issues for the cloud database vs. the local copy.

We saw from the data comparison above that the film tables in the two databases contain 1,000 rows of identical data. We can repeatedly run SELECT statements to retrieve the data from SQL Azure and from the local MySQL database to time the results. The DatabaseSpy SQL Editor message window displays the execution time.

Running the above SELECT statement five consecutive times on the SQL Azure version of the sakila database generated results ranging from 60.632 seconds to 63.851 seconds.

Running a SELECT statement for the same film table in the local MySQL database yielded the following result:

Repeating the test for the local version generated similar times. The takeaway for developers is your database-driven application will likely need to accommodate latency as you move your data to the cloud.

Try your own connection to SQL Azure with a free trial of Altova DatabaseSpy.

the award for “Tools & Frameworks” goes to Altova!

 

We are honored to be named to the SD Times 100 for the sixth time!

The award, now in its 7th year, recognizes the top innovators and leaders in multiple software development industry areas. Each year the editors of SD Times scour over thousands of nominations in search of companies, non-commercial organizations, open source projects, and other initiatives that exemplify innovation and leadership. When choosing the SD Times 100, the editors consider each company’s offerings and reputation. They listen to the “buzz” — how much attention a company, its products and technologies are creating — as a sign of leadership within the industry. Did the company set the industry agenda? Did a company’s products and services advance the software development art? Were programmers anxiously awaiting its developments? For the judges of the SD Times 100, these are qualities that mark a leader.

So what makes us a SD Times 100 winner? In Version 2009, our MissionKit suite of XML, database, and UML tools added key support for working with industry standards like Extensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) and Health Level 7 (HL7) to help companies adopt these standards while reducing costs and development time. We also rolled out over 70 new, customer-requested features in Version 2010 as part of our “Most Wanted” release, including support for WSDL 2.0, JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), and SysML, as well as compatibility with Windows 7 and 64-bit operating systems, and much more.

Download a free, 30-day trial of the MissionKit (v2010r3) and see what’s new in the latest version (v2010r3) of our awarding winning suite of XML, database, and UML tools.

 

ホームページと XMLSpy 製品ページ含む Altova ウェブページの多くが日本語化されました！この作業は今後も継続して行われ、新たに翻訳されたページもできる限り素早く追加していく予定です。

We are excited to announce that a large portion of the Altova Web site - including the home page and XMLSpy product pages - is now available in Japanese! This is an ongoing effort, and new translated pages are being added as quickly as possible. 

 

日本語版 MapForce 2010

他にも、次の日本語化された Altova バージョン 2010 製品となる MapForce 2010 のリリースを行いました。MapForce データマッピングツールは XMLSpy と共に完全に翻訳され、英語版、ドイツ語版と共にお求め頂けます（単一のライセンスキーコードにより使用する言語に関係なく製品のアンロックを行うことができます）。

日本語ユーザも、XML、データベース、EDI、フラットファイル、Excel 2007+、XBRL、そしてウェブサービスと言ったデータのマッピングと変換をグラフィカルに行う MapForce インターフェースを利用できるようになりました。無料トライアル版をダウンロードする際に、言語ドロップダウンから日本語を選択してください。

続けてその他の製品についても、地域化を続けて行く予定です。ご期待下さい！

 

We've also released the next Altova Version 2010 product to be localized in Japanese: MapForce 2010. The MapForce data mapping tool joins XMLSpy in being fully translated and available for download in Japanese as well as English and German. (A single license key code unlocks whichever language version you install.)

Now Japanese-speaking users can take advantage of the graphical MapForce interface for mapping and transforming data in any format, including XML, databases, EDI, flat files, Excel 2007+, XBRL, and Web services. Simply select Japanese from the language drop down when downloading a free trial.

We will continue localizing the rest of the product line throughout the year - stay tuned for more news!

 

The Altova team is excited to be heading to New Orleans next week to exhibit at The Microsoft TechEd and BI Conference 2010! You can find us in booth #644 at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana from June 7-10.

We hope you’ll stop by our booth to chat about what you’re working on, and see a demo of the newest features announced in our MissionKit 2010 Release 3, the integrated suite of XML, database, and UML tools. Among other features of interest for Microsoft® developers, support for integration with Visual Studio® in MissionKit tools has been updated to include Microsoft’s latest release, Visual Studio 2010 (versions 2005 and 2008 are also supported). Tools that support VS integration include the XMLSpy XML editor, MapForce data mapping tool, StyleVision stylesheet design tool, and UModel advanced UML tool.

We’d be happy to show you the latest functionality in XMLSpy for working with NIEM, a United States XML-based standard that is already inherently supported in many of the Altova MissionKit products. The new version delivers support for xsi:nil for XML Schema mapping in MapForce, as well as the ability to generate C++ code for 64-bit applications. StyleVision has improved its XBRL support with the addition of iXBRL, a subset of the XBRL standard that is, at this point, primarily used only in the United Kingdom. Other important new features in v2010r3 include mapping data based on SAP's IDoc EDI format in MapForce, and support for C# 4.0 and Protocol Machine State Diagrams in UModel.

You might also be interested to hear about our new 64-bit product versions and support for working with XML on SharePoint® Server that was added to XMLSpy back in February.

We will also be have the Altova product raffle – stop by and enter for a chance to win one of ten Altova product licenses!

 

 

 

 

“The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.” – Andrew S. Tanenbaum (attr.)

Maybe we can help. Altova’s updated schema library is a collection of over 100 industry and cross-industry XML Schema and DTD specifications – all in one central location.

XML standards (and technology standards in general) are used to promote information sharing and interoperability across disparate software and systems. In a perfect world, this would translate to a global network of data being exchanged seamlessly between information partners… in a perfect world. However, there are some industries that are reaping the rewards of standardization, and hopefully these efforts will pave the way for more. Very recently we have seen an increased interest and even some actionable mandates in XBRL for financial data, HL7 for exchanging healthcare messages, and NIEM for inter-agency communication within the United States government.

Of course, if you do find yourself working with some conflicting technology standards, you should probably take a look at Altova MapForce. With native support for visually mapping pretty much any data formats you can think of (XML, databases, flat files, EDI, Excel 2007+, XBRL, and Web services), easily adding data processing functions, and a whole bunch of automation options, you may even find that creating data integration solutions is well… kind of fun.

Check out Altova’s Industry Schema Library, or download a free 30-day trial of MapForce today!

More and more users are storing XML documents in database columns, especially when XML data is sent or received from other entities. Storing data in XML helps enterprises more easily accommodate revisions to industry-standard data formats as XML Schemas evolve over time.

One challenge in migrating from a relational database to an XML-oriented database application is developing queries that replace traditional SQL queries of relational data to parse XML documents stored in the database. We recently had an opportunity to address XQuery for XML in databases in a presentation titled Altova Tools for DB2® in a teleconference sponsored by IBM® for the pureXML™ Devotees user group.

After an introduction and brief background on Altova, we focused on the special functionality included in XMLSpy to manage XML Schemas in DB2 and to edit XML data stored in DB2. The XMLSpy Database Query Window makes it easy to edit XML database content directly in XMLSpy.

Altova has built specialized capabilities for deep integration of Altova tools with the DB2 pureXML data server to help customers working with XML, XML Schema, XQuery, and other XML-related technologies. We demonstrated the XMLSpy XQuery editor, XQuery debugger and XQuery profiler, with support for executing XQuery scripts directly against the DB2 database and for the special DB2 xmlcolumn and sqlquery operators.

We closed the presentation with a walk-through of the steps a user can take to migrate legacy relational data to an XML-based application, including inferring an XML Schema from relational data in a table in DB2, then importing data from the table and automatically tagging it in XML according to the new XML Schema.

We have uploaded a PDF file the slides from the presentation on SlideShare. You can also get a copy at the IBM pureXML Devotees page, where you can listen to the recorded audio as well.

The best way to experience for yourself how well the features of XMLSpy, MapForce, StyleVision, and DatabaseSpy work with DB2 and other databases with XML is to click here to download a free trial of the Altova MissionKit.

Clashes between government agencies are the stuff of legends and entire TV shows: the FBI and the CIA, the local sheriff's department and the big city CSI, Homeland Security and the Pentagon, Jack Bauer and CTU. Perhaps this has to do with the territorial nature of some of these entities, but perhaps, just perhaps, technology has a part to play in these conflicts. Incompatible architectures and data formats, legacy systems, and other technology road blocks within the United States government sometimes made it difficult for agencies to efficiently share pertinent information such as arrest reports, amber alerts, immigration details, and more.

The National Information Exchange Model (NIEM) is an XML-based standard for data exchange between United States government agencies and their information partners. It aims to provide a means for these entities to improve decision making, achieve greater operating efficiency, mitigate risk, improve public safety, and increase ROI through intergovernmental information exchange.

As a leader in XML tools and technologies, the Altova MissionKit already inherently supports NIEM on a variety of different levels. In v2010r3, we added two very specific features to XMLSpy that extend the XML editor with capabilities that are invaluable for NIEM development. For more on these features, see the recent NIEM blog post by our CEO and XML Aficionado, Alexander Falk.

Below is a brief overview of the support provided for NIEM across the MissionKit, from XML Schema editing in XMLSpy, to XMI import and UML diagramming in UModel, to data integration in MapForce, and beyond.

XMLSpy

XMLSpy® 2010 provides a graphical schema design interface which simplifies the development of XML Schemas, allowing XML code to be generated in real-time behind the scenes. Users can switch back and forth between this view and text view at any time during their design process.

The graphical schema editor provides built-in support for creating the IEPD Extension Schema, Constraint Schema, and Exchange Schema.

 

In addition to the broad XML Schema support described above, XMLSpy provides comprehensive support for all other prevalent XML technologies, including:

• Graphical and text-based editing views
• Sophisticated XML Schema and XML instance validation
• XML instance document creation
• XSLT editor, debugger, and profiler
• Web services tools (WSDL editor, SOAP client, SOAP debugger)

UML Diagrams

The first stage in any development lifecycle is a thorough business requirements review. UML is particularly well-suited to modeling software projects because it provides a standardized approach to the design process. Scenario-based planning is recommended for NIEM, and though there is no UML diagram requirement, class diagrams, use-case diagrams, and sequence diagrams all provide value to IEPD documentation. In addition, NIEM provides a free tool for mapping data requirements based on an uploaded XMI representation of a UML model

UModel® 2010 is an advanced UML tool that supports all fourteen UML 2.3 diagrams, BPMN, SysML, and more. It works seamlessly with XML technologies like XMI, letting users easily import and export XMI based on their UML diagrams. UModel can even render XML Schemas in a format similar to UML diagrams and integrates seamlessly with all other MissionKit tools including XMLSpy, MapForce, and SchemaAgent. UModel also supports code generation, round-trip engineering, and reverse engineering, as well as integration with the popular Visual Studio and Eclipse IDEs.

UModel can be used two different phases of NIEM development:

• Scenario Planning - to model and document with use case diagrams, sequence diagrams, and business process modeling
• Map & Model - to develop class diagrams to create the exchange content model

XML Schema Management

Because of the potential to have many different schemas in each IEPD, XML Schema management can become an arduous process. SchemaAgent® 2010 is a unique file management tool that lets users visually manage their XML Schema, XML, XSLT, and WSDL assets in a project-based environment so that changes and structure of the file configuration can be easily recognized. SchemaAgent users can even view mapping files created using MapForce.

 

Data Mapping & Exchange

Data mapping is a crucial step at several levels in the NIEM process. Mapping helps users generate a subset schema to determine what elements can be used from the core and domain models, it is also used to perform a transform from one NIEM vocabulary to another. Some NIEM implementations also employ Web services to provide a mechanism for the exchange.

MapForce® 2010 is an any-to-any data mapping and integration tool that supports all of the potential data formats used in the NIEM lifecycle including XML, databases, flat files, Excel 2007+, and Web services. MapForce maps data based on its underlying structure (i.e. XML Schema), enabling mapping designs to be reused for recurrent transformations. MapForce also supports mapping to and from multiple source or target components. In addition, MapForce can be used to generate documentation detailing mapping projects for non-technical stakeholders in a variety of formats such as HTML and Microsoft® Word.

 

 

See our NIEM page in the Altova Solutions Center for more information, or download a free 30-day trial of the MissionKit now!

It’s time for another Altova product launch!

Adding to the new functionality announced in February’s Release 2 of the Altova MissionKit 2010, Release 3 delivers integration with the recently available Visual Studio® 2010, support for working with NIEM and iXBRL standards, support for mapping data to/from SAP’s IDoc EDI format, and much more.

Check out just a few of the highlights below and read all the details on the Altova What’s New page.

Release 3 is a free update for all Altova customers with an active Support and Maintenance Package. You can also test drive a free trial that includes all these new features.

Integration with Visual Studio 2010

Multiple Altova tools have long supported seamless integration with Visual Studio, allowing you to use their complete feature set inside the VS environment to access advanced or specialized functionality not available within Visual Studio. These include :

• XMLSpy – XML editor
• MapForce – data mapping tool
• StyleVision – stylesheet design tool
• UModel – advanced UML tool
• Authentic – XML authoring tool

With Release 3, this functionality has been updated to support Visual Studio 2010, which was released by Microsoft® last month. This adds to previous support for Visual Studio 2005 and 2008.

XMLSpy 2010 Release 3

New functionality includes:

• Ability to validate naming and coding conventions (extended schema validation)
• User-defined sample values for XML instance generation
• Support for Visual Studio 2010

An oft-requested feature, extended schema validation allows you to validate naming and coding conventions outside the scope of the XML Schema standard. This gives you more control over your XML architecture by allowing you to further constrain the way that elements and attributes are created and defined.

An example application of this powerful feature is within the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM), though it can be used for any set of rules defined by your organization or project.

Another feature implemented based on XMLSpy customer requests is user-defined sample values for XML instance generation. While previous versions of the XML editor supported generation of XML instances using data supplied by XMLSpy, with v2010r3 you can now specify your own sample data so that the generated files will contain arbitrary results selected from pre-supplied values.

These new features are very important for users working with NIEM and other standards – and you’ll only find them in XMLSpy.

If you happen to be working with NIEM, be sure to read how the Altova MissionKit provides end-to-end support for NIEM, from IEPD development and planning, to the implementation of an exchange.

More R3 Highlights

Here are just a few other highlights from this most recent release across the Altova product line:

MapForce 2010r3

• MSXML6 for C++ code gen
• C++ generation for 64-bit systems
• Support for mapping SAP’s iDocEDI format
• Integration with Visual Studio 2010
• And more

StyleVision 2010r3

• Support for iXBRL
• Global templates for any element
• Integration with Visual Studio 2010

UModel 2010r3

• Integration with Visual Studio 2010
• Support for C# version 4.0
• Support for protocol state machine diagrams
• And more

DatabaseSpy 2010r3

• Support for inserting and retrieving external files from database binary fields

DiffDog 2010r3

• Enhancements to child-order functionality during XML-aware diff/merge comparisons

Check out all the new R3 features and screenshots here, and see how the Altova MissionKit can turbo charge your next development or data integration project!

This week Altova announced the integration of Altova MapForce, its conversion and data mapping tool, with Quark® Dynamic Publishing Solution. Through Automation Services™, a component of Quark’s dynamic publishing software, MapForce transformations translate XML into Web publishing formats, transform QuarkXPress® layouts for digital publishing, and convert XML to print pages, providing multi-channel publishers with a complete, automated XML-based publishing solution.

This solution highlights two powerful features of MapForce that have demonstrated benefits to users with a wide range of data conversion needs:

The MapForce visual data mapping interface supports integrating data as the source or destination in virtually any format, including XML, databases, flat files, EDI, Excel 2007+, XBRL, and Web services.

MapForce includes the ability to automate data integration and repeatable business processes through an automation interface that lets developers access its advanced features programmatically. Users can also automate MapForce through the command line interface, or by using MapForce generated royalty-free code in XSLT 1.0/2.0, XQuery, Java, C++ or C#.

“Having the ability to transform and publish data to multiple channels using an automated process helps users improve productivity and cut costs,” said Alexander Falk, President and CEO for Altova.

The Altova Web site features a series of MapForce flash videos that each demonstrate a significant feature in 4 minutes or less.

The Altova Online Training page offers three free MapForce self-paced training modules for Beginning, Intermediate, and Advanced data integration needs.

Find out for yourself how convenient and cost-effective can be to solve your data conversion requirements. Click here to download a fully functional, free 30-day trial of Altova MapForce 2010!

Altova products have long supported tight integration with Visual Studio, giving developers seamless access to the advanced functionality of XMLSpy, MapForce, StyleVision, and UModel directly in their preferred development environment.

So naturally, the Altova team is excited to attend the launch of Visual Studio 2010 on April 12-14 at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. We’ll be demonstrating all the latest features of the Altova MissionKit 2010 Release 2 and we’d love to meet you at booth 614 on the Exhibition floor.

If you’re not headed to Las Vegas, you can read more about Altova Integration with Visual Studio at the IDE Integration page on the http://www.altova.com/. Or follow the links below for detailed information on Visual Studio integration for each tool in the MissionKit:

XMLSpy 2010 Professional and Enterprise Editions support seamless integration with Visual Studio , Microsoft's premier application development environment, where you'll have access to all of XMLSpy's tools and utilities for modeling, editing, transforming, and debugging XML technologies.

MapForce 2010 Professional and Enterprise Editions support full Visual Studio integration, allowing you to harness the power of MapForce for data integration, Web services implementation, and C++, C#, and Java code generation directly inside Visual Studio.

StyleVision 2010 Professional and Enterprise Editions are offered as Visual Studio plugins, meaning that you can easily design and implement stylesheets for simultaneous XML, XBRL, and database output to HTML, RTF, PDF, and Word 2007+ (OOXML) directly within Visual Studio.

UModel 2010 Enterprise Edition now supports advanced integration with Visual Studio, including code/model synchronization, giving you access to all of its UML modeling capabilities from within Visual Studio.

(Oh yes, we know Visual Studio is not the only tool for all the XML, data integration, and UML developers out there. The Altova MissionKit IDE integration modules also support Eclipse.)